Door guide locking means

ABSTRACT

Door guide locking means for laterally movable building doors usually riding on suspensions from overhead track riding pulleys, said locking means being associated with the guide means in which the lower ends of adjacent doors meet when closed. Such locking means enable the doors to withstand an abnormally high wind without being blown into the building and being materially damaged.

United States Patent [1 1 Uphoff 1 Apr. 1,1975

[ DOOR GUIDE LOCKING MEANS [75] Inventor: Billie J. Uphoff, Morton, Ill.

[73] Assignee: Morton Buildings, lnc., Morton, 111.

[22] Filed: Aug. 30, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 392,880

[52] US. Cl 16/82, 16/90, 49/449 [51] Int. Cl E05f 5/02 [58] Field of Search 16/82, 90, 91; 49/449; 232/D1G. 46

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 340,991 5/1886 Diehl 1'6/82 X 447,182 2/1891 Hix 292/DIG. 46 692,463 2/1902 Livingston 49/449 X 1,656,587 1/l928 Huyck 252/DIG. 46 1,744,118 1/1930 Hicks 16/90 3,267,613 8/1966 McQuiston 49/449 3,352,586 11/1967 Hakanson 292/D1G. 46 3,534,431 10/1970 Uphoff 16/82 3,698,883 10/1972 Fazio 49/449 Primary E.\'aminerRoy D. Frazier Assistant ExaminerPeter A. Aschenbrenner Attorney, Agent, or FirmHill, Gross, Simpson, Van Santen, Steadman, Chiara & Simpson 57 ABSTRACT 1 Claim, 5 Drawing Figures DOOR GUIDE LOCKING MEANS SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Laterally moving suspended doors for outdoor buildings, such as farm buildings, garages, automobile repair shops, among many others, have considerable area exposed to the wind. A shallow track and a stop member for a pair of doors have frequently been utilized at the bottom. However, such a bottom track and stop member were usually at about ground level so that a truck could be driven over them without any injury to tires. Bearing in mind that two doors closed in edge to edge manner at the center of the building opening can have a total area of 200 feet and frequently more, it has happened that a wind of unexpected intensity caused the doors to flex inwardly until the bottoms of the doors snapped out of the track and the stop member, were blown into the building and severly injured.

The instant invention overcomes such a disadvantage by way of strongly mounted locking members at the I bases of the doors in the form of latches and with the bumper plate between the guide members in the stop member being notched to receive the latches from both doors to hold the doors in place against wind intensity little less than that of a real hurricane.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a fragmentary outside view of a pair of suspended laterally moving doors disposed over the entrance opening to an outdoor building, including improvements of the instant invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary side view taken between the doors with the left hand door in closed position;

FIG. 3 is a greatly enlarged fragmentary view of the door guide and locking means with the left hand door in closed position;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary side view of the structure of FIG. 3, with parts broken away and parts shown in section; and

FIG. 5 is an end view of the door guide and locking means indicating how both doors are locked when in edgewise confrontation.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In FIG. 1 I have shown a building 1 of any desirable outdoor type having an opening 2 therein which opening is closed by means of a pair of edgewise confronting laterally moving doors 3 and 4. A track 5 extends across the building above the opening 2 and each door is suspended from that track by one or more pulley assemblies 6 in a known manner.

At the center region of the opening 2 where the inner edges of the doors 3 and 4 substantially come in contact with each other when in closed position, a post 7 is sunk in the ground to a desired extent. An inverted U-shaped base plate 8 is disposed over the top of the post with the legs of the U hanging downwardly and secured against the sides of the post by screws or equivalent means 9. A pair of inverted U-shaped guide members 10-10, have their depending leg portions welded or equivalently secured to the legs of the base plate 8 as indicated at 11 in FIG. 3. The upper regions of the guide members 10 -10 are spaced above the upper face of the base plate so as to guide the doors into proper edge to edge relationship when closed. A stop member 12 is secured to the guide members l0l0, extending therebetween over the center of the post.

It will be noted that the stop member 12 is notched in the lower portion thereof and indicated at 13. As seen in FIG. 5, this notch 13 is of sufficient width to receive therein a latch element 14 which extends through the notch underneath the upper portion of the stop member 12; and a similar latch member 15 extending through the same notch in the opposite direction. In the illustrated instance, the latch member 14 is carried by the door 3 and the latch member 15 is carried by the door 4 offset to one side of the notch 13. When the doors are closed in end to end relationship, both latch members extend through the notch in opposite directions side by side.

The latch member on each door is securely and solidly mounted. With reference to FIG. 4 it will be seen that the latch member 14 on door 3 is of an L-shape with the latch 14 itself forming the shorter leg of the L extending horizontally while the longer leg 16 extends vertically between the inner upright frame member 17 of the door and the inner end of the thicker horizontal bottom frame member 18 of the door. A plurality of solid securing means 19 which may be screws, bolts, or 16 penny nails, or the like, pass through suitable apertures in the latch leg 16, through the upright frame member 17 and into the horizontal frame member 18. Of course, the same construction is utilized on the door 4 but with a latch disposed on the opposite side of the frame member 17.

Looking at FIG. 2, I have illustrated diagrammatically the effect of a strong wind upon the outer face of the door, the direction of the wind being indicated by a plurality of arrows 20. An extraordinary or unexpectedly strong wind might inwardly bow the door 3, 4 or both, as indicated by the dotted line 21 in FIG. 2, due to the fact that the door will have a slight resiliency, and there will be a small space above the respective latch member as indicated at 22 in FIG. 5, where the latch member underlies the upper end of the notch 13 in the stop member 12. However, even an exceedingly strong wind will not bow the doors sufficient for the bottom edge thereof to escape from the guide member by virtue of the latching with the stop member and thus prevent the door to be blown inwardly and damaged. Of course, suitable hooks, or other engageable members may be utilized on the inside or outside of the door to maintain the doors in edge to edge confronting orv closed position.

Heretofore, when the doors were secured in closed position and a strong wind hit the outer faces of both of them together, there was nothing to prevent the bottoms of the doors from moving out of the door guide and both doors being blown in as a whole. The instant arrangement effectively secures the doors and causes no more effort on the part of the operator than it formerly did to move the doors to closed position.

Although various minor modifications might be suggested by those versed in the art, it should be understood that I wish to employ within the scope of the patent warranted hereon all such modifications as reasonably and properly come within the scope of my contribution to the art.

I claim:

1. Latching means for laterally movable doors to close and open an opening in a building wall having centrally disposed door guide means at the bottom of 3 4 said opening with a stop member to position a pair of L-shaped member, doors in edge to edge relationship when closing said h longer l of h h d member b i di g Wherem the mprovemem comprfses posed vertically between the inner upright frame a pro ecting latch member on the lower inner end of member of the door and the end of the bottom door frame member, and means firmly securing said longer leg in such posi- 

1. Latching means for laterally movable doors to close and open an opening in a building wall having centrally disposed door guide means at the bottom of said opening with a stop member to position a pair of doors in edge to edge relationship when closing said opening, wherein the improvement comprises, a projecting latch member on the lower inner end of a door, said stop member having a notch in the lower portion thereof to receive said latch member when said door is in closed position, said latch member being the shorter leg of an integral Lshaped member, the longer leg of the L-shaped member being disposed vertically between the inner upright frame member of the door and the end of the bottom door frame member, and means firmly securing said longer leg in such position. 